The
epidemiological situation in Central Africa continues to deteriorate. According
to the latest data, which was announced at a briefing by Africa CDC
representative Wessam Mankula, the total number of deaths from Ebola in the DRC
and Uganda has exceeded 200 people. To date, 894 cases of infection have been
confirmed in the laboratory: 875 of them are in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, and 19 more are in neighboring Uganda. At the same time, only 74
patients recovered, and the mortality rate is about 23%.
Experts are
particularly concerned about the dynamics of the spread of the virus. As
Mankula emphasized, in the first weeks of the outbreak, the infection was
transmitted noticeably faster than it was observed during previous epidemics on
the continent. The situation is aggravated by weak control over the contacts of
infected people: currently, doctors are able to track only about 4.1 thousand
people, while the real number of potential contacts, according to experts, may
reach 35 thousand. This means that a significant part of the virus transmission
chain remains outside the surveillance zone, RuNews24 writes.
The
outbreak, announced back in mid-May, has already received the status of a
public health emergency of international importance from the World Health
Organization. The epicenter is located in the province of Ituri in the east of
the DRC, where a difficult humanitarian situation persists due to the activity
of armed groups and mass population movements. In Uganda, according to WHO, all
confirmed cases are epidemiologically related to the outbreak in the Congo.
The
representative of Africa CDC acknowledged that the local authorities are still
very far from taking the situation under full control. Despite the measures
being taken, including expanded testing and work with local communities, the
virus continues to spread, and the region's health system is operating at its
limit.
Medical
services are calling for an immediate strengthening of contact tracing and
isolation measures to prevent a further increase in the number of victims.
